England's Ashes cash offer

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England's cricketers have another incentive to try to wrestle
back the Ashes from Australia - a $1.5 million cash bonus if they
can win the five-match Test series.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has dangled the
enormous carrot, and if successful, Michael Vaughan and his players
and coaching staff could each pocket about $80,000 on top of their
ECB contracts and match payments.

The first Test starts at Lord's later today.

While team bonuses are not new, the massive incentive is one of
the biggest offered a national side.

It is 10 times the sum given to India's team from its cricket
board for beating arch-rivals Pakistan in a three-Test series last
year.

Cricket Australia has not offered a similar incentive, and a
team spokesman said there would be no bonuses for the team even if
it completed a ninth-straight Ashes series victory.

Instead Australia's motivation could come from its group of
superstars, who are nearing the end of their international careers
and will not tour England again.

Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, both 35, Justin Langer, 34, and
Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden and Damien Martyn, all 33, would be
unlikely to feature in the 2009 Ashes touring party.

Captain Ricky Ponting, 30, acknowledged the group was determined
to say goodbye to England on the best possible note.

"A lot of the players know that this might be their last Ashes
trip to England," Ponting said.

"That's probably going to make it a more special one for them
and make them even keener to perform as well as they can.

"I know that would be the way they're approaching it."

While Australia could lose some of its greatest personnel after
the 2007 World Cup, England expects to have its entire current team
available for the next Ashes series, in Australia in 2006-07.

The average age of England's first Test team is 27, while
Australia's is around the 31-year mark.

Vaughan, 30, the second-oldest team member of his team behind
left-arm spinner Ashley Giles, 32, said it was a refreshing change
for an England side to potentially stay together for several
years.

England match-winners Andrew Flintoff and Andrew Strauss, both
28, and fast bowler Steve Harmison, 26, are all currently at the
peak age for sportsmen.

"It excites me because you look at the next Ashes and every
single player in our team will be available for that one," Vaughan
said.

"That's not saying that we're not thinking that we can win this
one, but it's really exciting that an England team can play
together for a few years. How often does that happen?

"It's usually a case of 'oh, he may retire', and 'it's the end
of him', and it's just exciting times with some good players."

Meanwhile, the player of the series will be awarded the
inaugural Compton-Miller Medal, named after late greats Denis
Compton and Keith Miller, who played against each other in the
1940s and 50s and were great mates off the field.